Aim. The purpose is to determine meanings  and grammar constructions  that are used to express bisubstantive sentences  with a neutral evaluative meaning,  as well as constructions  that are used in such sentences.

Methodology. The research relies on the functional-semantic analysis of bisubstantive sentences  with a neutral evaluative meaning in texts of different genres.

Results. The study makes it possible to reveal frequent meanings  expressed  in bisubstantive sentences when describing people, as well as typical constructions used in sentences with neutral evaluation.

Research implications. The theoretical significance  of the paper is determined by the clarification of the semantics of bisubstantive sentences,  the expansion of the concept of a neutral evaluation, and a certain contribution to the method of linguistic analysis of a text. The materials of the research can be used in the practice of teaching the modern Russian language.

Aim. The aim of the paper is to establish that the situationality as a category of the semantics underlines the coherence as a category of textuality.

Methodology. The paper considers  different approaches to the notion of situation and the relationship between the notions of situationality and coherence.  The methods  of linguistic text analysis  and the set-theoretical approach are used.

Results. It is proven that situationality underlines the coherence.

Research  implications. The results  of the study contribute  to the textuality theory and offer an algorithm for a situational analysis of a text.

Aim. The aim of the paper is to consider the functions of euphemisms, as well as ways and means of euphemization in a gradual aspect.

Methodology. The research  provides  various  definitions  of euphemisms and reveals the psychological essence of the verbal representation of emotions as the main factor in the usage  of euphemisms in speech.  Use is made of a number of general scientific and particular scientific methods,  such as exploratory and descriptive, as well as discursive analysis. The application of the classification method and interdisciplinary approach is due to the need to use a universal classifier of the phenomenon of euphemism.

Research  implications. The importance  of the research is due to the prevalence of the usage of euphemisms  in speech  and the need for a functional approach to the description of this phenomenon  in Russian.

Results.  The study presents a classification of methods and means of euphemization,  which makes  it possible to determine the presence of the word value of measure and degree.

Aim. The purpose is to identify the role of the concept of music in F.A. Vigdorova’s creative heritage of the 1950s–1960s.

Methodology. The paper establishes  the frequency of the use of words with the root -muz- by F. A. Vigdorova in the literary texts of the 1950s–1960s, as well as considers the lexicographic characteristics of the studied words. The nest of words with the root -muz- is analyzed from the point of view of the semantics.  The lexico-semantic field and its meaning  for the description of the concept  are characterized.  The research uses the methods, including linguistic observation and description, statistical calculation, and elements of component analysis.

Results. By analyzing the semantics of words with the root -muz, we found that they demonstrate the features of the composition of the writer’s idiolect as well as the constants of the writer’s idiostyle, pointing out the important role of the persons involved in the creation of a musical work. The paper reveals the specifics of reflecting the conceptual content of the most important unit of the Russian  and world culture – the concept sphere  of “music” – in  the mental-linguistic complex  of the linguistic  personality  of F.A. Vigdorova.

The obtained results allow one to assess  the worldview of the writer, the writer’s erudition, and the degree of involvement in the formation of national Russian  culture during the period of creativity.

Research  implications. The scientific  novelty  of the work is due to the first analysis of the semantics of words  with  the root -muz-, as well  as lexical  and semantic  field of the concept  of “music” in F.A. Vigdorova’s  literary texts  of the 1950s–1960s.  The results of the research can be used in the preparation  of lectures  and practical  classes on linguistic  semantics,   linguoculturology,  and the language of fiction in higher educational institutions.

Aim. The aim of the research is to determine the peculiarities of the language of the poetic works of Sergey Yesenin. The specificity lies in the connection of the literary language  with phonetic, accentological and grammatical dialectal phenomena, in the use of dialectal word-formation models in texts not related to the “village”  theme and in attempts to create poems  written entirely with the dialect’s  use.

Methodology.   The  paper covers specific examples of  dialectal phonetic, accentological   and grammatical  phenomena  present  in  poetic  texts of Sergey Yesenin  in  connection   with the search for a new poetic  language  in  the Russian  literature of the beginning  of the XX century. Methods of  observation,   comparison, generalization   and  interpretation   are  employed   in   the  research. Materials of a field research of the dialect of the village of Kontantinovo, Rybnovo Raion, Ryazan Region are used in the analysis of literary texts.

Results. Poetic  texts indicate the poet’s  fluency in literary language  and the dialect of his native village of Konstantinovo, Rybnovo Raion, Ryazan Region. The presence of a significant number of works created using the dialect and some works  entirely written in the dialect indicates  that Sergey  Yesenin  (like Nikolai Klyuev) attempted  to create a new poetic language  in which we can find features of a literary microlanguage due to the presence of a significant dialect component.

Research  implications. The research  summarizes  considerable  material on the studied problem.  Its results can be used in university special courses  on Russian dialectology,  philological analysis of texts, and studies of the language of literary works.

Aim. The purpose  of the paper is to identify the functional and pragmatic potential of the quantification variation of pronominal lexemes for designating an indefinite-plural authorizing subject in a media text. Methodology. Authorization structures with the pronominal designation  of an indefinite-plural subject-authorizer are compared  and analyzed based  on the Russian-language  texts of the Belarusian newspapers “SB. Belarus’ Today” and “BelGazeta”. The research utlizes the following methods: descriptive, contextual, pragmatic interpretation, linguistic experiment.

Results. The functional and pragmatic specialization of pronominal means is determined in the course of the research work as koe-kto, kto-to, nekotorye, mnogie, vse in the implementation of “they”-authorization strategies in the Russian-language  media text of the Belarusian print media.  The interconnection of the author’s choice of the pronominal lexeme with the communicative strategies and epistemic attitudes of the journalist is revealed.  It is shown that various authorization switches  are actively used by authors to organize and represent polemical media discourse.

Research  implications. The results  of the study make it possible  to expand the understanding of the pragmatics of language  resources  in their media discourse  projection,  as well as to make a certain contribution to the development of pragmalinguistics and pragmatics of the media text that can be used in the development of active grammars of the Russian language and the development of the content of educational courses  in the field of media linguistics.

Aim. The purpose of the paper is to examine the allegorical layer in I. S. Turgenev’s story “The Dog”.

Methodology. The paper studies I. S. Turgenev’s story “The Dog” from the standpoint of psychoanalytic literary studies.

Results. The analysis showed that the story “The Dog” can be understood as a text in the structure of which the elements of the unconscious clearly manifest themselves. The image of one of the three dogs that appear in the text is a metaphor for the dark side, which is not accessible to the consciousness  of the main character. Turgenev’s story is not a “trifle”, as many contemporaries  believed. In his intuition about the nature of the unconscious,  the writer was far ahead of his time, and his story also represents an experience  in the field of new poetics,  the principles of which were developed  in the writer’s late work, to which it is customary  to refer everything he wrote after “Fathers and Sons”.

Research  implications. A new approach to the analysis of the story makes  it possible  to activate the reader’s perception of the text, when the reader himself has to decipher the deep psychological  and anthropological meanings hidden behind allegorical and parabolic constructions.  The same approach can be used for further research on the “mysterious stories” of I.S. Turgenev.

Aim. The purpose  of the paper is to show the significance  of the work of I. Ehrenburg as a translator of the anthology “Poets of France. 1870-1913” in the formation of his own poetry and in the history of Russian  literature at the beginning  of the twentieth century.

Methodology. The paper presents  for the first time a historical and literary analysis  of this anthology using an integrated approach that includes elements of cultural-historical, structural, comparative and motivational methods.

Results. Both already known and new information about the topic under study is summarized, the history of the creation and publication of the anthology is presented, and an overview of critical reviews on it is given. A structural analysis of the content of the anthology is carried out, as a result of which its significance is established in the context of the literary process  of the early XX century, in particular, in the development of poetic translation. Signs of the influence of French poets translated by Ehrenburg on the formation of his poetic voice are revealed.

Research implications. The research expands the understanding of both the activities of I. Ehrenburg in the 1910s and the intercultural interaction of this period. The results obtained can be used for further study of the creative biography of I. Ehrenburg, the history of the development of poetic translation and literary influences at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Aim. We explore the history of the creation of the libretto and stage pieces of operas which are based on M. Lermontov’s poem “Demon” and show the differences between librettists’ texts.

Methodology. The paper is based on the main literary approaches,  such as cultural and historical,  as well as on the method of systemic and holistic analysis.

Results. The analysis showed that the author of the 1860’s  libretto was the writer-librettist V. Sollogub. The original collaboration of the librettist (P. Viskovatov) and the composer itself (A. Rubinstein) is noted. The paper demonstrates that composers  (Rubinstein and Fitingif-Shel) appealed to the works of K. Pavlova, Ya. Polonsky and A. Maikov, and also presents the reasons for the refusal of the Directorate of the Mariinsky Theater to stage the operas of A. Rubenstein and B. Fitingif-Shel in 1871. Another significant point is given, which is the change in the subsequent name of the Fitingof-Shel’s opera (“Tamara”).

Research implications. The observations can be used to study the texts of the two librettos, as well as to compare and analyzes the librettos and Lermontov’s poem “Demon”.

Aim. The purpose of the paper is to reveal the features of the use of the name by A.K. Tolstoy in early fiction through a systematic approach.

Methodology. The paper analyzes the system  of proper names  in A. K. Tolstoy’s  story “The Family of the Ghoul”.  The research uses the historical and literary method, observation, continuous sampling, contextual analysis, classification, and statistical method.

Results. The specificity of Tolstoy’s name usage at the levels of paradigmatics and syntagmatics is revealed.

Research implications. The results of the study enrich the idea of the features of the semantic and stylistic system and the individual author’s word usage by A.K. Tolstoy.  The obtained results can be also used in university courses “History of the Russian literature of the XIX century” and “Literary local history”, as well as in special courses on onomastics of a literary text and on the Russian literature of the XIX century, dedicated to the work of A.K. Tolstoy.

Aim. The purpose  of the paper is to identify and analyze the genre varieties and the typology of characters in V. Dragunsky’s short stories.

Methodology. The  research relies on the use of historical-literary, discursive,  typological,  analytical, comparative and hermeneutic methods.

Results. The paper presents the genre system of V. Dragunsky’s short stories, shows the main types of short stories and their subtypes on specific examples, and discusses the typical characters in each type of short story.

Research implications. The theoretical significance  of the work lies in identifying the genre specificity of V. Dragunsky’s stories.  The results of the research can be used to study the problem of the genre specificity of V. Dragunsky’s  short stories and his creative heritage. The practical significance  of the study is associated  with the possibility  of using the materials and conclusions for further study  of V. Dragunsky’s work, as well as teaching university courses  on the theory of literature and the history of Russian  children’s literature. The materials can be used not only for reading courses  on the works of V. Dragunsky, but also for the development of theoretical and historical-literary courses,  where the problems of children’s  literature and the genre specificity  of short stories are actualized.